For Jansen Harkins, the shock of getting cut from Canada's under-18 national team in April was replaced by the awe of winning gold for Team Canada last weekend at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
His two trips to Europe since the Prince George Cougars' season ended prematurely last spring reminded the 17-year-old Cougars forward how his abruptly his hockey fortunes can turn.
Harkins was one of the last cuts from the U-18 national squad prior to the world championship in Finland. While he hated that feeling at the time, it motivated him work that much harder to prove to Hockey Canada brass he was too good to pass up for the Hlinka tournament in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
"It was pretty tough to take, that was the first team I've been cut from in awhile and that gave me a bit of a chip on my shoulder in training and I was ready for the U-18 camp in the summer," said Harkins.
"Winning gold was a big moment, pretty much the best result and it was pretty special. We won each game by at least a four-goal deficit and that's a pretty big accomplishment."
Harkins skated on a line with Travis Konecny of the Ottawa 67s) and Mathew Barzal of the Seattle Thunderbirds). Both were first-overall bantam draft picks in their respective leagues and Harkins reaped the benefits, finishing the six-game tournament with two goals and four assists. He also had a goal in exhibition play. His first tournament goal, on a penalty shot, capped the scoring in a 5-1 win over Sweden. Canada went on to defeat the Czech Republic 6-2 in Sunday's final.
"Me and Matt are pretty good friends from minor hockey in Vancouver so the chemistry was there and Konecny is a good player," said Harkins. "When you play on a team like that, everyone has a high skill set and it's easy to play with anyone.
"Lots of the Hockey Canada guys said they were really impressed with our team and that was the main thing. We were more of a team than we were individuals. We had lots of good players who stuck to their roles and it was a great experience."
Harkins played two exhibition games for Canada in Finland before he was sent home in April prior to the IIHF world championship. He feels he played well enough in the Hlinka tournament to make some inroads to Canada's world junior under-20 team.
"I'm happy with how I played and I think lots of our players will get lots of looks for the world juniors," said Harkins. "It's a big step up to play world juniors as a 17-year-old but hopefully I'll have a good start and get a bit of consideration."
Harkins broke into the WHL last season as a 16-year-old and finished with 10 goals and 34 points in 67 games with the Cougars. He will be looked upon as one of the leaders of the Cougars in his sophomore season. Training camp opens Friday for 100 players vying for spots and Harkins says the Hlinka tournament has him well prepared for the start of the season, Sept. 20 in Portland.
"It's a big year for every 17-year-old going into the league and I definitely started off on a good note," said the six-foot-one, 182-pound Harkins. "That's a big tournament to get the first game action in and it's definitely a big help being ready and in playing shape pretty much a month before training camp even starts."
The change in Cougars' ownership and the hype of the New Ice Age has raised the profile of the team considerably and Harkins can hardly wait to experience it. Now that his dad Todd has been hired as the Cats general manager, the Jansen family has pulled up stakes in North Vancouver. He and his mom and dad and two brothers will soon be living together in close proximity to the rink at CN Centre.
"Everything seems better and newer, just overall a more professional organization," said Jansen. "It was a good place to play last season but there have been lots of improvements made in the off-season and I'm just excited to get up there and get things going."
The Cougars could potentially have 19 returning players, although forward Troy Bourke (Colorado Avalanche) and Zach Pochiro (St. Louis Blues) will not be reporting to camp and will go directly to their pro teams. The Cougars missed the playoffs last year for the third straight season.
"I get asked a lot about what our team was like last year and I always say we had a good team, because we did," said Jansen. "We had one of the top forward groups in the league and a couple of our [defencemen] played well all year. With [goalie Ty] Edmonds playing a lot of games he got a little tired and we had a lot of injuries. We'll be getting a couple more new faces in the room and with everyone coming back we'll have a lot more of a veteran leadership presence, so I'm looking forward to a good year."
Harkins spent part of his day Wednesday getting acquainted with the Stanley Cup trophy when Los Angeles Kings goalie Martin Jones brought it back to his hometown of North Vancouver. Jones invited Todd Harkins, his former Vancouver Giants midget coach, to Wednesday's reception at the North Shore Winter Club.
After the Cougars players check in Friday afternoon, the 15- and 16-year-olds will suit up for the Young Guns game Friday at 4 p.m. at CN Centre.
"We wanted to do something different this year and this gets our young guys going right away," said Todd Harkins.
The camp resumes on Saturday with the players broken up into six teams for scrimmages from 9 a.m. - 9:15 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The White vs. Black intrasquad game is set for Monday at 7 p.m. All training camp scrimmages and games are open to the public free of charge.
The Cougars 50/50 Society will utilize a new electronic raffle ticket sales system to raise money on game nights for minor sports groups and other charitable causes in the community. The Pointstreak 50/50 software allows ticket sellers to punch in sales using handheld devices with portable printers and at several touch-screen terminals located in the CN Centre concourse. Updated raffle jackpots will be displayed in real time on the rink scoreboard and on a dedicated website.
